We Have to Change the Way We Do Our Business
This article originally appeared on Climbing
Climbing history is surprisingly full of poop tales, some infamous, others viral, most destined to remain anonymous forever. The inimitable Cedar Wright once reflected that many of his proudest climbing achievements had "a poop subplot." And as it turns out, the same can be said of Alex Honnold, who has an unfortunate and surprisingly consistent urge to move his bowels mid-way through some of his most intimidating free solos. It happened on Freerider, in an alcove just beneath the El Cap Spire, and it also happened in 2014, when Honnold--in what Mark Synnott describes in The Impossible Climb as perhaps "the most daring poop in history"--had to take a "space dump" while dangling from overhanging 5.10 fingerlocks 400 feet up the nine-pitch 5.12b Romantic Warrior.
Famous poops aside, the fact is that humans poop and climbers are human--so there's an innate relationship between our waste and the places we conduct our sport. And while this particular type of environmental impact was pretty minimal in climbing's early days, the climbing boom of the last few decades has changed the equation--and it's time to update our best practices.
Support climbing conservation and bring WAG bags to our crags by donating to the Give a Campaign--a partnership between Access Fund, EPIC Water Filters, and Outside Inc.
Catholes are out; WAG bags are in.
For most of the last 50 years, climbers (alongside hikers, boaters, bikers, etc.) have agreed that in most environments, the best poop practice was to (a) dispose of waste in a cathole that was six to eight inches deep and two hundred feet away from any water, and (b) pack out your used toilet paper. In especially sensitive ecosystems, however, like alpine tundra, riparian zones, and deserts, the best practice has been to pack your waste out.
We now need to do that everywhere.
Why? Because catholes don't break down excrement particularly well--even in bacteria-rich soils. This has been common knowledge in the scientific community for 40 years, but when outdoor user numbers were low, the impacts of our waste on soil bacteria and water systems were minimal. Catholes were valuable mainly because they kept unseemly human waste out of sight and off the soles of our shoes. Now, however, more people are pooping outside, and our poop has become increasingly toxic ( 21st century human feces often contains chemicals, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and hormones from medications like birth control). So the solution is pretty obvious: We must now do for ourselves what we do for our dogs
The best way to do that? Buy yourself some WAG bags--which can vary from simple, sealable plastic bags to higher-tech bags containing odor-reducing filler--and commit to bringing them to the crag and using them while you're there. At first this may seem off-putting or gross, but you're an adult: deal with it. Also, as any big wall climber or paddler or experienced desert-traveler will tell you, using a WAG bag is a bit like picking up after your dog: the first couple times you do it, you may find it unsavory; but once you stop thinking about it, it's just business as usual.
Second, donate! This week Access Fund, EPIC Water Filters, and Climbing's parent company Outside Inc. are trying to raise $21,000 from the climbing community. These donations, plus an additional $7,000 from Epic Water Filters, will be used to buy and distribute 7,0000 WAG bags to climbing areas around the U.S.
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